Address—C. Hendricks
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Genesis chapter 5. This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him male and female created. He then and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created not as he called their name Adam. So the name Adam includes Heath.
1St Corinthians 12, verse 12.
As the body is 1 and half many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body.
So also is Christ. We would think that would read. So also is the Church.
But it doesn't read that way. It is a similar truth to what we just read in Genesis 5. He called their name Adam. So Eve was Mrs. Adam, she was given his name. And so the assembly. Because it's quite obvious that verse 12 of First Corinthians 12 is talking about the church. The body is 1 and half many members.
And all the members of that one body, being many, are one body. So also is literally so also is the Christ.
For by 1 spirit I will baptized into one body, whether he was Jews or Gentiles, whether it would be bonded free, and of an all been made to drink into one spirit.
So it's the Spirit of God.
By his coming and the day of Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
That friends in one body, and from that time there was something in this world that had never existed before.
It's called the body of Christ.
And in that 12TH verse.
The name of the head of the body is given to the body itself. The name of the head is given to the body. So also is the Christ, so in bear his name.
Now that's very directly involved in the truth of the mystery.
The truth of the mystery is Christ in the church.
Christ and the Church.
In the Old Testament.
With the Christ ringing.
That prophecies, many prophecies. The king shall reign in righteousness, and Princess shall rule in judgment and so on. The Messiah, the king, he would, he would come and reign, but that he would have run associated with him in that room, his very body and God was not revealed in the Old Testament.
That was the mystery, the mystery, the secret that we were talking about last night.
That wonderful mystery, Christ and the Church.
Turn back to Ephesians one. This time we have the mystery mentioned again, but not we. We are looking at it in chapter 3 as it now takes form and shape in this world, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. That's true right now, the Gentiles being brought into a place of nearness and blessing.
Never predicted before of the Old Testament.
Joe is with the Jews, a German body, drug partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel. That's the mystery, and it is given in the Apostle Paul, who is the apostle of the uncircumcision, as Peter was that of the circumcision, to reveal the truth of the mystery.
9 Ephesians 1.
We have the will of God mentioned over and over again, His counsels, His purposes.
Often in Ephesians when all is flowing from God to us.
And let's just start reading from verse 7 in when you have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, the secret of His will now.
According to this good pleasure that you have purchased in himself.
All this flows from it is all of himself. It flows from himself to us.
And it's the it's the heart of God, the will of God.
Being accomplished now in the carrying out of his good pleasure.
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He has purchased it in himself.
Verse 10 What is this mystery of His will, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that's the millennial reign of Christ?
When God begins to dispense His goods on another principle now and out of righteousness today, it's grace. God is dealing with grace. He does in law with man in the old economy of things for 1500 years. The law is given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
An entirely new order of things, a new arrangement, a new house order, if you will, a new dispensation or stewardship or economy or administration was introduced when Christ went to the glory and sent down the Holy Spirit to baptize the 120 believers on the day of Pentecost into one body.
After that point, they were just merely individual believers.
After that, they were no longer just individual believers, those that pursued today a path of independency on individual path. They say it's all over, the world is so great, the public thing, the collective thing has failed and so I just go alone.
The cardinal truth of this dispensation, those that do that, they are ignoring it and violating it and not walking according to it. And so they they're not giving expression to the cardinal truth of the dispensation that we're not just individuals and longer that we have been united together by the formative power of the Holy Spirit. It's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit into one body.
And you notice that? Well, I was going to refer, I just referred to it and not turn you to it. In Acts 2, where we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit embracing the Jews, and Acts 10, it embraces the Gentiles. And once those two groups were brought into the one body, I believe the baptism of the Spirit was accomplished. It began, of course, it was the initial.
Coming of the Holy Spirit was on the day of Pentecost.
That only Jews were brought in. Then it waited until Acts 10 until the Gentiles were brought in. And it says well adverse that we just read for by 1 spirit, where we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bonded, free, and have all been made to drink of 1 spirit.
So the baptism of the Holy Spirit embraces Jews and Gentiles, and until they both were brought in and received the Holy Spirit and brought into that one body.
When that happened.
When that was accomplished, the baptism of the Spirit was accomplished. I don't believe it's going on today because it's that corporate action of the Spirit of God which forms the body of Christ. And at the end of that it says the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved. And now everyone of us who is saved and receives the Spirit of God, we are added.
To this one body which was formed back then by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So we are as it says in First Corinthians 12. If we can say by 1 Spirit, will we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free well.
And in that very verse preceding the assembly is given His name. We are so one with Him, and we're singing last night, Lord Jesus, how we won with thee, and tonight again one spirit with the Lord. So a unity has been formed. It's called in Ephesians 4, the unity of the Spirit, and that cannot be broken.
We are to endeavor to keep it in the United bound of peace.
We can't make it, we can't break it, but we can't fail to keep it. And so we're excited to keep it. God made it. God maintains it in perfection. There is one body. In spite of all our failure to give expression to that truth, there still is 1 body, and that was formed by the baptism of the Spirit. And that can't change. God maintains that.
Infallibly and perfectly.
That we can certainly fail to keep it. For that we need loneliness and meekness and long-suffering and forbearing one another in love in Devon to keep using diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace. It's not a unity that man makes or forms. It's not coming through an agreement on certain issues or doctrines and drawing up a creed. It's the fact that we have been brought into.
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Membership in the Body of Christ and united to the Head in Heaven.
Marvelous, tremendous truth. Well, let me get in the mystery of His will here in Ephesians one, verse 10, that in that coming day, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together, and then that expression is a sort of a paraphrase.
Literally to head up.
All things in the Christ He did in the new constellation, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance now.
I believe that when it says he's going to head off all things in the Christ.
The Christ includes us, we are a part of Him, we are one with Him, and so we have His name. So also is the Christ. He called their name Adam, and then Adam wheeled over that dominion over which he was placed. Eve had a share in that wheel. And so it will be. This is part of this great mystery, the mystery of Christ in the Church. It says in First Thessalonians.
That when the Lord Jesus comes in the air and we're gathered up to him, it says, so shall we ever be with the Lord?
From the latch you're on will always be with him, will always be associated with him in all of his activities in his room. Over this world we shall reign over the earth.
And the apostle says, maybe not that he shall judge angels. How much more than things pertaining to this life we're going to have that blessed association with himself. And this was a mystery not revealed in the Old Testament. It's called here the mystery of his will. And immediately he goes on to say.
All things in the Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, we're going to have a share in that.
And the very end of this chapter.
We read the last verse. The last.
Few verses of Ephesians 1.
He prays that they might know. And I'll start with verse 19. What is the exceeding greatness of his power to I swear, who believe according to the working with his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every man that is named by any of this world, but also not which is to come.
And have put all things under his feet.
And gave him to be the head over all things to the church. He's not here presented as being the head of the church that comes into the in a in a later chapter in Ephesians, but here he is the head over all things to the church.
And he's presented to the assembly as the head over all things, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth on and all.
That's tremendous expression. She is the assembly is his fullness, his compliment.
And he who feels All in all is.
If I could put it that way by the assembly.
It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper.
His like, and he made Eve and brought her to to Adam. And Adam said, this is now born of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Now that's not the revelation of the mystery, but it contains the truth of the mystery which we were looking at from Ephesians 5 last night, that very passage being quoted.
In Ephesians 5 concerning Christ in the church and he's talking about the marriage relationship of the man and the woman, and then he says this is a great mystery. I speak concerning Christ in the assembly. And so we have the the the very marriage relationship reflecting the truth of Christ in his church.
So it seems the teaching of scripture to be.
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That once we are with them, we will be with him and all of his activities as he reigns over this scene that have a part with him in that we will be joined to him. And so it says, and his business, his compliment. He's not complete without the church, even as Adam was not complete without Eve.
And then it goes on the same verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of human worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. And we should be the praise of His glory. We the Church should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. And here he's referring to the Jews who believed.
Before the nation will believe and they are the pre trusters.
In Christ and then the Gentiles are mentioned in the next verse, in whom you also you Gentiles also trusted. After that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and Him also after that you believed you were smeared with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the honest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. The redemption of the purchased possession is not our redemption that when He brings.
All that he has purchased the whole creation into blessing.
We're going to have part in that. We're going to have a part in that, the illness of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. All that the Lord Jesus has won by virtue of his becoming man and walking down here for the blowing of God, all that he has won and will be back to him will be shared by the assembly.
That's part of the mystery. You will not take it in there. He will not have it only for himself that he has won a bride, His very body for himself to spend, to have her with himself for all eternity and all that he is. One will be shared with his God and she will share it as Co reigning with Him.
Wonderful, matchless grace to the praise.
Of His glory.
Well.
Turn with me to Colossians one. I just want to read a few verses from Colossians 1.
And this tremendous subject of the mystery.
You know, the saddest thing is that Paul laboured and fervently and suffered.
More than in the other of the apostles, because of the truth of the mystery that he was bringing, that the Gentiles should be brought into this immense sphere of blessing as joy dares with the Jew. And no favor today of the jewel to the Gentile. Not a bit of it. And whenever you hear that, I've heard Jews give their testimony, converted Jews.
Give their testimony that they've received the Messiah, and then they spoil it by saying that I'm still a Jew.
And still of you. Now, why should they want to say that when there's something far better than a Jew? They're a Christian now. They belong to the Church of God. There's three kinds of people in the world, the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God.
And the Jews, they know that all things have passed away. If anything in Christ there's a new creation. All things are passed away. Whether I was a Jew or Gentile makes no difference. All things that become new. I'm now a member of the body of Christ, the Church of God.
And that's infinitely better than anything that Israel ever had, anything that they ever had. They will have the people blessed with an earthly inheritance, an earthly blessings. And we are heavenly people blessed with heavenly blessings and spiritual blessings in Christ glorified. And now Paul had two ministries. Just want to point this out and.
Then we'll close.
He says in Colossians one verse 21 and he they were sometimes eliminated in enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now having reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if he continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
Which he had heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.
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Where I Paul and made a minister Paul. The first part of Paul's ministry was the gospel.
And he speaks of that in that verse. Then he goes on to give the second part of his ministry, Who now enjoys in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body's sake, which is the Church.
If you have two ministries, the ministry of the gospel to the Gentiles, preaching to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, but he also had the the ministry committed to him to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery.
The administration of the mystery and that's what he mentions in verse 24. He was given to fill up, to complete, to fill for the sufferings and tribulations of Christ for his body sake, which is the church.
These were sufferings that the Lord Jesus.
Did not have as a man on earth, because the truth of the assembly hadn't been given yet. There are sufferings especially attached to and associated with the building heart, the truth of the church, the body of Christ, the mystery. And Paul suffered those sufferings. When he was conveyed, the Lord said to Anamias, I will show him how great things he must suffer from thy sake.
So he goes on to say in verse 25, whereof I am made a minister according to the system of God, which is given to me for you, for you Gentiles. He calls it the dispensation of God. This a new administration, this new stewardship never before given. It's it's an altogether new thing. It's the stewardship of God.
Which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. That means to complete it. And now that the truth of the mystery has been revealed and Paul has preached it and taught it.
All the gods God has to reveal for man has been revealed. There was, you might say. I've often thought of it as a pie chart. And here's a pie. There's a great big slice of pie missing. And when the truth of the church was preached through Paul, revealed to Paul and brought out, that part of the pie was filled in. And that's all the truth of God now has been revealed.
There's nothing wrong to come out.
And counselors of God, the hidden secret, the mystery, the dispensation of the mystery has now revealed that part that was never revealed before. It was hidden in God. Now it's been revealed. So the Word of God is full, full. It is complete. We don't look for fresh revelations any longer. The truth of the mystery has completed all that God has in mind to reveal to man. It's all been revealed. And so he says.
The dispensation of God. He has made a ministry according to that which is given to me for you to complete, to fulfill the Word of God. Even the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations, but now has made manifest to His Saints to whom God would make known. That is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.
Which is Christ in you, the hope of Lord.
If Christ is in.
If we are in Christ, that's Ephesians doctrine and in his place before God and viewed as his body and he the head. Now in the Colossians Christ is in us. That's the other side of the mystery Christ in you the hope of glory. Christ in us by life and by the Spirit, so that his very life in nature is the possession of each one of us. Now Christ is in US that assures the.
For us it's called here the hope of glory. The goal is to come. If Christ is in us now, by the Spirit and by life, we have the glory assured to us. And so it's called here the hope of glory, whom we preach where the living man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect.
In Christ Jesus, if the sake of God has not entered into these things that we're preaching on that Paul was given to preach.
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He is not mature in Christ. Pauls burden was that we need to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That doesn't mean morally perfect. That doesn't mean sinless. That means that the person has entered into the truth of the mystery. He's been enlightened as to it, and the Spirit of God has flooded his soul with the with the light of mystery, Christ and the church.
Christ has an object on earth.
With more to them than anything else. And that's his church, His bride, his body. He loved the church. He gave himself for it. He is sanctifying it. Today we're washing it with a letter of the Word. He's going to present it to himself one day soon. A church glorious without spot, a winkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blame.
Christ now is in us in life and by the Spirit and the glory is assured to us, the hope of glory when at any end of the truth of the mystery he could make. That's the very foundation truth to understand these deeper truths of the mystery, Christ and the assembly.
Paul preached this, it says warning every man or admonishing every man, teaching every man in all wisdom. This is the wisdom of God. These are the deep things of God that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And the soul that hasn't entered into these things is not perfect, is not mature, is not full grown, not a mature full grown Christian.
Why until I also labor striving according to his working which worketh in the marketing.
Father, that you knew what great conflict I have for you, for your sense of policy, and for them at lay of the Seal, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.
These Saints of Coliseum were instructed to read this epistle that he sent to them to the assembly of Laodicea.
And the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2 and Three, only two are those that Paul visited.
First one mentioned and the last one mentioned. I'm including Leo Vicio in this address to Colisee because they would agree that this.
To the Laodiceans we have that right here says and for them that Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, just quickly turned to the 4th chapter verse.
12E cross, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, to live with you all his laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. You can't be perfect and complete in all the will of God and not understand the truth of the mystery, not had not having editing to it in some way. That's what Eprofas was laboring about.
For our bearing record that he had the great zeal for you, and then that I am Leno this year, and then in hippopotamus.
Verse 15 looked to us look the dragon which are in Laodicea and emphasis and the church which is in his house and then there's a person is right among the cause of the present also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So you see this address to Colisee was also.
To the lay of the scenes.
They would have hit. And isn't it striking that in the seven churches the first one is Ephesus? For all that truth that Paul ministered and taught them was given out. They had left their first love. The departure had set in, and it ends in the nauseous.
State of Luke warmness.
Depicted in Laodicea.
And here he was, laboring, burdened.
Suffering in order that they might have these precious truths that would separate them from the world and give them to intelligently know that they belong to heaven and to the man who is in the glory, whom the world is rejected and cast out. They united to that man as members of his body, as separated people, as heavenly people down here to represent their head. That's why we left here, not to get ahead in the world, not to make a name for ourselves.
Not many of those things, but to represent.
The one who is the head, a heavenly bridegroom. Well, I read this last night. I just conclude chapter 2, verse 2 That their hearts might be comforted. They lived together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the full knowledge of meeting it as it is in the new translation to the full knowledge of the mystery of God in which going on to verse 3 now.
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I hid all the treasures of wisdom.
And knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should be guiding you with enticing words. So the danger is to be beguiled, to be enticed with other things, to be get occupied with the world's wisdom and its system of thinking. And here God has given us that which contains all the wisdom of God and all the knowledge of God.
The mystery Christ in the assembly. We form part of that heavenly company.
That is united to the man in the glory. Soon he is going to gather us home to be with himself, and from that point on will always be with the Lord. When he reigns over this scene, we will have a part in that. We will be seen with him. When he returns to set up the Kingdom, we will be with him. We will be with him, will always be with him, wherever he is, as those that are his body.
And his bride.
All how this ought to to form us and start going back to that First Timothy 1.
He says.
I'm going to have to read it first. Timothy 1.
Verse 4 and neither did he disables and English genealogies which minister questions rather than further God's dispensation. That's the way it reads in the new translation, which is in faith to further God's dispensation, the dispensation of the mystery, the dispensation of the grace of God to promote that to further it to conduct ourselves as good stewards in his.
Old to bring forth meat in this season according to the revelation of the truth of the mystery. That is to be a good steward in the things that God has committed to us.
As we look around us, we see that these truths are virtually to the large percentage of Christians, lost among unheard of, administered, not taught, not after that.
What about you? What about me?
Do these things have power over our souls as Paul earnestly prayed and labored and suffered so intently that the Saints might have these precious truths and be established in the truth of the mystery? Time is up. Let's just look to the Lord in prayer.